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World

Italian protest bloc in parliament: people's patience with traditional parties wearing thin

Associated Press
Published | Updated
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    Comic-turned political agitator and leader of the anti-establishment 5 Star Movement Beppe Grillo arrives for a press conference in Rome, Sunday, April 21, 2013. Italy's Parliament on Saturday re-elected Giorgio Napolitano to an unprecedented second term as president, after party leaders persuaded the 87-year-old to serve again in hopes of easing the hostility that has thwarted formation of a new government. While Napolitano's election received a standing ovation from lawmakers and plaudits from abroad, several thousand people protested noisily outside Parliament Saturday, disappointed that Italy's old political guard hadn't changed. Lawmakers from Parliament's third-largest bloc, the anti-establishment 5 Star Movement led by comic-turned-political agitator Beppe Grillo, galvanized supporters for the protest. Grillo had backed a left-leaning constitutional law expert for president. Grillo and his fast-growing movement are bitterly opposed to the incumbent, who in late 2011 appointed Monti and a Cabinet of technocrats to replace an elected premier as the eurozone debt crisis threatened to engulf Italy. (AP Photo/Roberto Monaldo, Lapresse) (The Associated Press)

  • 167cdbf9-Italy Politics
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    FILE - In this March 30, 2013 file photo Italian President Giorgio Napolitano meets reporters at the Quirinale presidential palace in Rome. With a heavily polarized Parliament unable so far to agree on a new president for Italy, 87-year-old President Giorgio Napolitano yielded on Saturday, April 20, 2013 to pleading from political leaders to be a candidate for a second term and quickly end an impasse which has thwarted efforts to form a government in the recession-mired country. Napolitano, citing his advanced age, had repeatedly refused to be a candidate for an unprecedented second seven-year term. But he said in a statement after lobbying from the leaders that he "cannot help but take on the responsibility toward the nation." (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca, File) (The Associated Press)

ROME – A day after Italy's president was re-elected to an unprecedented second term, the leader of an anti-establishment movement says citizens' patience with traditional parties is wearing thin.

Beppe Grillo, a comic who heads the Five Star Movement, has dismissed President Giorgio Napolitano's re-election as a bid by doomed parties to hang onto power.

Grillo, whose party is the No. 3 bloc in Parliament, predicted in Rome on Sunday that traditional parties would "last a year."

The mainstream blocs are still bickering over how to form the next government two months after inconclusive national elections. Napolitano was re-elected Saturday after Parliament's mainstream parties couldn't agree on a new personality. Napolitano could tap someone to try to form a governing coalition this week.

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